CT attorney general seeking answers from M&T Bank over consumer, employee complaints

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) – Connecticut Attorney General William Tong issued a letter to M&T Bank over its merge with People’s United Bank.

Many customers reported problems weeks after the merger, which was completed back in April.

Tong said he was really focused on the former workers and the customers of M&T Bank. He said M&T was a huge company and it should have been better prepared to handle the merger.

Even before the merge with People’s United, M&T assured him workers would have good-paying jobs at the new company. He said that hasn’t been the case.

“We’re hearing that people may have opportunities, if they have opportunities, at lower paying jobs, outside of Connecticut, which I can tell you would be very disadvantageous to people and detrimental to their families,” Tong said.

The other big concern was the customers. Channel 3 heard from many of them. Some had no issues, but the vast majority had complaints.

Many couldn’t access their bank accounts online.

That made it difficult to pay bills, and for some, to close on a house.

M&T said it was fixing the problems, but Tong wasn’t satisfied.

He said it was poor planning by M&T. He asked it for a dedicated liaison to help sort out the issues and give a detailed plan to help its workers and customers.

“This is unacceptable. I know that the bank knows this,” Tong said.

People’s United Bank was a big part of Connecticut’s economy, and a big employer, according to the attorney general. He wanted M&T to have a point person, at least one or more to focus on answering his questions and those from customers.

M&T offered to meet with the attorney general. In a statement the bank said, “M&T Bank has taken concrete steps to improve the customer service experience.”

It said it added additional staff to its branches, activated digital upgrades, extended call hours, and reduced wait times.

“Number two, they got to cut these wait times. They have to put as many resources as they can to not forcing people to stay on the phone for hours and hours and then risk that that call gets dropped,” Tong said.

M&T said it would not stop working until all customer issues were solved.

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